1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for editing an image having the distance information for between a subject and an image capturing apparatus at the time of capturing the image.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image capturing apparatus such as a digital camera has a zoom function, and can capture an image of a distant subject at a desired magnification. The zoom function includes an optical zoom function realized by changing a focal length between an optical system and an image sensor, and an electronic (digital) zoom function realized by electronically zooming in an image signal output from the image sensor.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-200950 discloses a technique for capturing an image at a desired angle of view without any zoom operation by simultaneously displaying a plurality of different through images having different angles of view using the digital zoom function, and prompting the user to select one of these through images.
Some image capturing apparatuses have a function which measures the distance to a subject to be captured. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-067521 discloses a technique for measuring distances from an image capturing apparatus to subjects, dividing a captured image into a plurality of regions according to the measured distances, and applying filters having different frequency characteristics to these regions.
The general digital zoom function used in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-200950 zooms in all pieces of image information within an image capturing range upon execution of zoom-in processing. That is, in framing including a background and a main subject, when the zoom function is used to capture a large image of the main subject, it is often the case that the desired background does not fall within the angle of view. For this reason, in order to capture a large image of the main subject while the desired background falls within the angle of view, the main subject has to be moved closer to the image capturing apparatus. However, when an image is to be captured using a light-emitting device such as a strobe, since the close main subject is mainly irradiated with strobe light, an image of the main subject suffers a highlight-loss, and an image having a luminance difference between the background and main subject is unwantedly captured.
Also, as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-067521, an image is divided into regions according to the distances to subjects, and digital zoom processes having different magnifications according to the distances associated with these regions are applied, thereby creating a pseudo composite photograph in which a large image of a main subject is captured while a background falls within an angle of view.
However, when the digital zoom processes having different magnifications according to the distances associated with respective regions are applied, the user cannot easily identify the distance to the main subject, and it is not easy for the user to set a desired magnification by selecting a subject within an arbitrary distance range.